We originally had Bro. Sam Davison scheduled to preach the services today, but his wife just had hip surgery and he could not leave her alone for the weekend. Thankfully, we rescheduled him for the summer, and I am already looking forward to it!
In his place, we have another Sam—Bro. Sam Brock—preaching. Bro. Sam Brock has been a long-time friend of our church, and was passing through the area with his wife Cindy, so I asked him to preach today.
“Mr. Sam,” as we know him around camp, is the director at Ironwood, a Christian camp near Barstow. We attend camps there year round, and I look at Mr. Sam as one of the top five men who has most influenced my thinking.
Through my years as youth pastor, we attended an annual Youth Leaders Retreat at Ironwood where we spent three days sharing thoughts with one another about the Bible, parents, youth activities, philosophies of youth ministry, books, and so much more. Every time Mr. Sam spoke, it was like scooping up gold nuggets. He has a way of articulating truth in an accessible way, and he can distill information like no one else I have seen.
Ironwood has served our church in incredible ways, particularly over the past ten years or so. Their entire attention is on serving churches, and they have worked with our church over the years to adapt their program to the specific needs of our church, even creating a custom summer camp. Instead of being offended that we wanted to make changes, not only did they accommodate our needs, they bent over backwards to make them happen. All along, their theme was, “We are here to serve churches.” I love that.
Ironwood has served our church through the Hacienda (a pastor’s retreat center), young adult camps, youth winter camps, youth summer camps (junior and senior), couples retreats, mother/daughter retreats, ladies retreats, youth leader retreats, tabletopia (a gaming/craft camp), staff planning and training, paintball camps, and a pastor’s wife retreat—and that’s only within the past year! We are there a lot.
In addition, Ironwood’s Institute of Ministry students—a college for camp ministry—attended our church and had lunch with our Rooted class. They were a great blessing on the Sunday that our power went out at church—never a dull moment! Also last year, three men from Ironwood’s pastoral internship program visited our church and we discussed all kinds of church ministry topics.
I appreciate the camp, love the staff, and am thankful for the help that they have given us over the years. Although our missions program focuses mostly on church planting missionaries, we support the camp through our regular involvement.
Ironwood was where I surrendered my heart to the Lord, where I committed to read my Bible daily, and where I made some lasting spiritual decisions, and because of that, there’s a special place in my heart for our guest preacher today.
-Pastor Ryan